Destiny Draws Near – A Preview of Sorts

There is something to be said for buying into the new crop of consoles just a few days too late, it means that some things get to be a bigger surprise than you expected. You see, when I bought my PlayStation 4, the last Destiny public test had just come and I missed by chance to take part. To be honest though, I hadn’t really been keeping tabs on Bungie’s big break away from the Halo franchise. I wasn’t planning on buying into the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 until Christmas at the earliest, and so I hadn’t been tracking half of the new generation of console titles like I should have been.

For Destiny, that all changes right now.

I was playing on Sony’s new black box this past weekend with some friends when one of them asked if I was going to be getting Destiny. I mumbled a vague notion that I might be picking it up. I didn’t want to reveal too clearly that I had been failing in my journalistic capacity by paying attention to what many are proclaiming will be one of the biggest titles to launch this year.

After a session of frantic Battlefield action came to an end, I took a glance at my emails and saw a message from Activision’s PR that I had purposely left unread. Inside was a link to the official Destiny launch trailer which I had been meaning to watch. I still find it strange for a launch trailer to be released the best part of three weeks before the games itself is released, but that just goes to show how the games industry is changing.

I watched it and was instantly impressed with the scale of the worlds that were on show, the level of character customisation and even the overly serious narration caught my ear.

There are enemies out here you would not believe, but they’ve never seen anything like you. It doesn’t matter who you were, only what you will become.

I got the sense that I was doing myself a disservice by not watching any of the other videos for the game. One suggestion from YouTube was a seven-minute in-depth exploration of the gameplay on offer with Bungie co-founder, Jason Jones.

I have to say, this video still leaves me with mixed feelings. There seems to be so much on offer in Destiny, everything ranging from the single-player shooty bits to single-player RPG elements via MMO-esque dungeon raids and more traditional co-operative story questing. In all honesty, it sounds like the kind of game that I would normally dip my toes into and run away scared from the online sections. Well, I would if I was playing this on the PC.

As this will be out on the latest pair of consoles, I might just be tempted to give it a chance. My experience playing with friends on the PlayStation 4 has been thoroughly enjoyable so far, and as one or two of them will be playing Destiny come September, I feel more secure in being drawn into it. The only issue is that I will be a week late to the party as I will be away when the game is released.

The promise of single-player and MMO stylings wasn’t enough for me though. I knew I had seen another email from Activision in recent weeks linking to another Destiny video. I searched through and found it, a trailer showing off some of the player vs player elements of the game.

I see elements of everything ranging from traditional FPS-multiplayer action seen in Halo and Call of Duty to Battlefield style vehicle action with a hint of Titanfall’s verticality thrown in for good measure.

It certainly looks like Destiny has something for everyone who likes their shooting games. Will it all come together in a coherent game? Twitter reports during the public tests were undoubtedly positive, and all of the footage that has been revealed looks more than promising.

Will it be a game changer for AAA shooters? I’m not sure, but I might just end up trying it out.

2 Comments »

I hated FPS with a passion but i remember seeing the early designs of this game when they were previewing the PS4. I completely missed the alpha but from the moment I turned on the Beta it was a done deal. You haven’t played so you can’t possibly imagine the fun you’re about to have. There are flaws sure but that was the reasoning for all the testing. Best game so far on the PS4.